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I haven't played it thus far. But I do know the connections it has to Symphonia:
- we know Lloyd names the Great Kharlan Tree Yggdrasill because in Phantasia that is the name of the tree (because in Symphonia Lloyd finishes the game saying 'This tree's name is!...' and then it ends. It's proven to be Yggdrasill because of Phantasia, and also because 'Yggdrasil' literally means 'tree of life' in Norse mythology.) - Various summon spirits are used in Phantasia, summoned by Klarth (sp?). - Sheena's distance relative, Suzu Fujibayashi, is present in the game.
There are others. Now I'm not entirely sure this is all correct, as, I've never played the game myself.
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b o u k e nh o u k i b o s h i ~ ♫ Dwarven Vow #666 - When the end of the world is coming, you give your son a sword and hopes he makes it back.
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Well, in Tales Of Phantasia, it says "The moons of this world is Sylvarant and however the other one is spelled lol" If you go through all Tales games reading everything, there will be hint offs on the next Tales Of Game or a future one. My brother found that one out >_>
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Emulated for Snes, quite an awesome game.
[spoilers coming, stop reading if you don't want to know it]
@Kratos: Klarth is the summoner for Phantasia, so you got that right, yes, martel is present as the spirit of Yggdrasill.
It's unfortunate that people say that it's a distant sequel to ToS... When there are few links to it.
Example links: The Tree of Life Yggdrasill, summon spirits and the mana cannon.
But really, there is just too much that's changed between the two games to really call them truly related. I don't mind the fact that they're part of the Tales of games that deal with the same world (The Aselia series if memory serves correctly) but aside from those basic links, it's a bit of a waste to use the sequel/prequel titles for the game.
Also, ToP is more into the whole norse mythology than ToS is, so yeah lol </rant>
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'Now the spirit is within you, the spirit of grief. Your spirit, bowed before the judgement of Heaven, sinks downwards to the earth. It is heavy with gravity's wish. The tenure of eternity grows, freed from the bonds of time. The voices of light have been heard. The hands of sound lie upon your flesh. Here is the judgement of Heaven: I bind you in chains of iron.'
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I object to your statement, Renegade.
Phantasia does indeed take place four thousand years after the events of Symphonia - Symphonia was made to be Phantasia's prequel. There are more links than the ones you pointed out, such as the fact that the main characters end up wielding the Eternal Sword, and Dhaos is from Derris-Kharlan (indeed, his entire motivation is to get a Mana Tree Seed in order to produce mana for Derris-Kharlan, so that it doesn't die). And as Kratos pointed out, Suzu Fujibayashi is a distant descendant of Sheena, proven not only by her last name, but by her outfit as well; it's the same as Sheena's Successor costume title. While it's true that Phantasia isn't a direct sequel (we have the monstrosity known as Dawn of the New World for that), it is indeed a sequel, taking place four thousand years later. After all, that's what Symphonia was intended to be - a prequel to Phantasia.
Also, as someone pointed out, the moons of Aselia are called Sylvarant and Tethe'alla. Another throwback to this is in Symphonia itself, when Sheena claims to be from Tethe'alla, and someone (it's either Lloyd or Genis, but I think it's Lloyd) says: "Tethe'alla? You mean the moon?" It makes sense that - after the worlds were reunited - people dubbed the moons after the past two worlds. Also, "Aselia" is very close to "Iselia," so it's possible that the new, reunited world just got named after Lloyd's hometown. =P People do seem to be in the habit of letting that boy name things.
I also disagree with the claim "Phantasia is more into Norse mythology than ToS," because while I'm sure Phantasia deals a lot with Norse mythology (I can't say how much; I haven't actually played, because the artwork is a HUGE turn-off for me), Symphonia is simply chock full of it. A brief list:
--Yggdrasill, as everyone has already said, is the tree of life. --Asgard, the name of one of the villages, is the place where the Gods reside in Norse mythology (most people say that Valhalla is, but Valhalla is actually only a part of Asgard - specifically, the hall of heroes). --Niflheim, the world of the dead in Norse mythology, and the land of demons in ToS. --Heimdall, the name of the elven village, is a God in Norse mythology who protects Bifrost, which is the rainbow bridge that leads to Asgard. --Ymir, the forest which protects Heimdall in ToS, was a giant in Norse mythology whose son was Odin's (Odin was the equivalent of Zeus) father. --To a lesser extent, the positions of dwarves and elves are also the same. In Norse mythology, dwarves were mastercraftsmen who lived underground (it's stated by someone that dwarves who live above ground end up losing their skill over time). And elves tended to flowers and stuff, which fits with the elves of Heimdall having such a pretty forest village. <3
And then, in the sequel, it goes even further by bringing in Ratatosk, who - short of being a really powerful spirit - was actually a red squirrel which ran up and down the tree Yggdrasill, ferrying insults and rumors. But y'know, these things happen.
I'm sure there are other connections to Norse mythology, too, but that's all that I've got for now. I know you probably didn't mean it like that, but it just almost sounded like you were saying that Symphonia had no connections to Norse mythology at all, when really, it does. =/
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Oh god no, I didn't mean that at all, I had forgotten the meanings of Heimdall and Niflheim so I didn't associate them, same with Ymir.
But I will say, that I did post up initially "Example Links" Meaning that I knew there were more.
I will stand with my initial statement that the terms sequel/prequel do not suit the link between ToS and ToP. They really are two very different games, despite all the links.
Oh, and just for the record, I'm not counting the sequel because I haven't played it as yet.
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'Now the spirit is within you, the spirit of grief. Your spirit, bowed before the judgement of Heaven, sinks downwards to the earth. It is heavy with gravity's wish. The tenure of eternity grows, freed from the bonds of time. The voices of light have been heard. The hands of sound lie upon your flesh. Here is the judgement of Heaven: I bind you in chains of iron.'
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I think our disagreement comes on what we define as a "sequel" - or what terms we're using the term in. 'Cause my stance on it is, Phantasia isn't a direct sequel - because a direct sequel would continue the storyline and lives of the characters present in Symphonia. But it is a distant sequel, because it takes place in the same world four thousand years later, and the events of Phantasia relate to the events in Symphonia - however distantly. They can definitely be taken as two separate games - you don't have to play Symphonia to understand Phantasia (especially since Phantasia came first) and vice versa, but I'm pretty sure Namco did intend for Symphonia to be a prequel.
But we're really just arguing semantics, I think, and it doesn't really matter much. =) The only direct sequel, though, is DotNW, and that . . . urk . . . Rent it before you buy it, I implore you. >< Just to be on the safe side.
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Lol, okay, in all honesty, because both games are part of the Aselia series of Tales games, no matter how hard anyone tries, they will always be referred to as either prequel or sequel, no matter how much I believe that they really shouldn't, Ah well, not to worry.
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'Now the spirit is within you, the spirit of grief. Your spirit, bowed before the judgement of Heaven, sinks downwards to the earth. It is heavy with gravity's wish. The tenure of eternity grows, freed from the bonds of time. The voices of light have been heard. The hands of sound lie upon your flesh. Here is the judgement of Heaven: I bind you in chains of iron.'